Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lithuanian Plaza is not what it used to be. Between 68th and 70th, it runs from Marquette Park to Western, not that far at all. One side is a huge church and a credit union next to Holy Cross Hospital, that Deli is/was directly across the street. I took photos between California and Rockwell, and since it was about 10:30 on a Tuesday morning, it was hard to tell if a few of the taverns were still doing business. Seemed that way, though I'm no longer certain of the clientele. I got the stare from more than one black guy in basketball shorts and dago tee. But my story is about the Plaza Pub.

I was with Critical Mass Chris and Citizen Nick and Chris was taking notes for a pal on some south side bars. I remember it was cold, but then probably 8 out of 10 of my adventures occur when it is cold. I need to get out of this town. It's dark in the place, empty for a Saturday afternoon in January, maybe five years back, but the place slowly filled up and I was hit by cold air every few gulps from my drink. The TV above the window (the one on the right in the third photo) had some show on The History Channel about Hitler and some malady he might have had. Film was examined. We all watched because that's what you do in a neighborhood tavern. Somehow several of us got on the subject of words that started with 'hemo.' I'm sure that in the comments tomorrow, Scott (AKA C.N.) will have the conversation verbatim. It was centered around hemotoma and hemophilia. The woman who tended bar, and likely owned the tavern, had that ageless look women have when they are past middle age, kept themselves in shape, and had a glow about them because they carried gigantic half-filled snifters of cognac. I was thinking how she looked like Lili St. Cyr if she had been alive. You just knew she'd been sexy, and was probably still sexy. She could have been 45, she could have been 60.

The lady felt the need to get the answer to what hemophilia was in her own manner, and she went to the other side of the bar and grabbed the BIGGEST hardback dictionary I had ever seen in my life. It had been a chore to lift it up, but she had the arm muscles to work it. One of those volumes where the cover is fuzzy and looks like felt with leather edges.. A guy who sat next to me got in on the discussion. His name was Stan. The only time I have ever met a guy named Stan in my life is inside of a tavern. So there she is, talking through her cigarette at us, her perfume exquisite, with all the other regulars, who easily had twenty years on, well, Chris and Scott, were staring at the bartender's ass. Black slacks and a coral sweater, I can still remember, though Scott has the conversation down, I know that much. Not much more to the story than that, we stood there looking at the black and white images of Nazis on the television and were clear on the definitions, then we finished our drinks and went back into the cold twilight. All the regulars maybe thought it was odd that we had been there, and we were really the only ones surprised at the size of that thousand page dictionary. But it was something talking to the woman, wondering if she and the others talked about us after we left.

Then we went to a bar named Clowns Alley, by the old Colony Theater on 59th and Troy.

Well, I'm as up to date as can be on any photos I wanted to put on the blog instead of Flickr. Tomorrow, I'll run the huge set of old Lithuanian taverns near Holy Cross Hospital. First, a few others. I actually got off the bus at 63rd & California (this was an hour or so after the tavern shots), and backtracked a bit for the car wash sign. You can always tell a neighborhood by the amount of pedestrians out at 11 AM on a Tuesday morning. Back near my house, I took this photo of this poster for, I think, US Cellular, and it came out just about how I wanted. Aside from being beautiful, the girl is in focus (in the original ad), with some type of Ferris wheel behind her. It looks even more faded and (purposefully) tilted, so I call it a success. Plus, another photo of a pretty girl I will never, ever meet. And so it doesn't seem too sexist here, for any women taking a looksee, I'm adding one of the (to me) coolest advertisements for my old nemesis Canadian Club. So now everyone should be happy. Some guy from the 70s, a car wash from the 80s, and a modern day girl and a Ferris wheel.